Jethro Ibileke/Benin
Member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ebenezer Babatope, has attributed the party’s defeat in the last Presidential election to the party’s impunity and arbitrariness, imposition, lack of internal democracy and the zoning arrangement which he said was jettisoned after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Babatope stated this while delivering a lecture entitled: “Nigeria’s Sixteen Years of Democratic Experiment – Which Way Forward?, organized by a new group in Edo State chapter of the PDP, by the name, New Dawn.
The politician said for the PDP to stand a chance in regaining the presidency in 2019, the party may have to pick its Presidential candidate from any of the states from the North.
According to him, apart from the actions of impunity and arbitrariness, imposition, allegedly exhibited by the PDP, “bureaucracy during the elections, the PDP was never ever able to resolve the agitation by Northern leaders that the Presidency should be ceded to the North due to the sudden death of Yar’Adua until the problem consumed the party and made way for its defeat in the 2015 presidential election.”
While urging the PDP to imbibe internal democracy and allow the younger generation to take over the leadership of the party, Babatope said insinuation that President Muhammadu Buhari may not run in 2019 due to his age, may become a major problem that may trigger a dangerous split in the party’s arrangement for 2019.
“Facts remain however that we (PDP leaders) made mistakes in the preparations of our party for the elections. For example, it was wrong for our party’s Board of Trustees not to have met when we were engulfed with the party campaigns for the elections. Our party played into the waiting hands of the opposition with this kind of situation.
“Any of the political parties in Nigeria that attempts to bring impunity to our system or that attempts to push off the effective voice of the people in the determination of its presidential candidate will kiss the political dust and sentence itself to total failure and collapse.
“The PDP having suffered defeat once in its 2015 experience in the hands of impunity and anti democratic process, will completely write itself off if it once again destroys the democratic process by closing its doors to popular opinion and democratic will in the selection of its candidates.
“If the APC decides to subvert democratic process of nominating candidates for the election, it will equally sentence the party and the party’s operations to irredeemable frustration and despair. In other words, 2019 will decide many things for Nigeria’s future as a democratic nation,” Babatope said.
Speaking in the same vane, another PDP national leader, Raymond Dokpesi, explained that the New Dawn in Edo state is meant to rebuild the PDP collectively, adding that the group was determined to “reconstruct this party and bring the party back to power in Edo in 2016 and at the Federal level in 2019.
He however confessed that the leadership of the party has always been selfish, self-centered and greedy, which he said cost the party victory in the last general elections.
“We lost our way and I want to on behalf of the PDP, tender unreserved apology to each and every one of you; the youths, the women, the leaders, for the grievous mistakes we all made. I plead for your forgiveness.
“We provided bad leadership, we were self centered, only thinking of our interest, not the interest of all of us, it will never happen again.
“The voice of one person almost became the voice of all of us. The grace of God will never allow that to happen again. We shall all participate in deciding our destiny. One major mistake I must plead with you to forgive us for is the unnecessary quarrel and issues that started from 2006, 2007 which led to parallel congresses, and divided us.
“We will lead this party, PDP back to Government House in Benin City and we shall take back Aso Rock in 2019. All those that were de-registered from the party, you all should assist me to bring them all back to the party. Let us reconstruct this party once again. I am to further reassure you that the present executive of the PDP from the ward level up to the state level, their tenure will end this August. Anybody who thinks he has done well should come back and apply and you will decide whether you want him or not and it must be done transparently.
“PDP is ready to fight to get back in Government House in Benin City. At the national level, I want to tell you that there is nothing that the APC government is claiming today that wasn’t done by the Jonathan administration, they are only posturing,” Dokpesi said.
Earlier in his welcome address, leader of the New Dawn, Senator Roland Owie, urged the 8th National Assembly “to urgently commence the amendment of the Nigeria’s Constitution which they have done twice to give autonomy to local government councils, but unfortunately some [State] House of Assembly that are rubber stamp turned it down, because if you don’t have autonomy of the local government Nigeria can’t develop the rural area.
“In the next line of amendment, any House of Assembly in Nigeria that votes against autonomy of the local government, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the ALGON, the market women and men should take possession of their Assembly. They wouldn’t sit until they support the autonomy of local government
because enough is enough of destroying that arm.”